Nguyen Van Loi gets a death sentence for killing a woman and then burned her body in Binh Dinh Province. Photo: Tuoi Tre

6. Woman beheaded and dismembered

Police in the northern city of Hai Phong on January 9, 2011 arrested a man who confessed to killing and dismembering his creditor, a 37-year-old woman.

Nguyen Dung Giang, 31, told officers that he had killed Nguyen Thi Thu Hang with a hammer, but claimed he had done it in a fit of anger after discovering Hang, who had earlier lent him some money, stole VND500,000 (US$25) from him.

But police suspect he killed her because he did not want to repay, and wanted to steal her gold ring and motorbike.

Hang’s headless body was found in an isolated area near Dam Trieu Market in Kien An District on January 7. Her arms had also been chopped off, and she was naked except for a pair of underpants.

As the body offered no clues, the police screened the area for missing persons and later identified the victim as a resident of Le Chan District. A widow, Hang had been living with her son, a high-school student.

After finding that she had left her house on January 5 to collect a debt, the police closed in on Giang, a single man who rented a place in Hai An to sell clothes.

He said that on the night of January 5 Hang had come to his shop with a man and wanted to buy a fighting cock for her son.

After the man left, she remained behind to watch TV, and then stole the money, he said. But the police suspect he telephoned Hang and told her to come and collect the debt.Police later found a bag containing two arms and another with clothes in it near the Lach Tray River.

Police suspect that a deep cut on Hang’s left thigh indicated an attempt to dismember the limb.

Locals flocked to the scene where Hang’s headless body was found(Photo: Tuoi Tre)

7. Husband burns wife and child alive

A man in the southern province of An Giang ruthlessly beat and burned his wife and daughter to death when he found out she had sold his fighting cock to buy milk for their 18 month-old baby on February 19, 2011.

Due to the fire, Phung Hoai Anh, together with his wife Huynh Thi Thuy Loan and his child Phung Duong Ngoc, suffered severe burns, and they were all taken to An Giang General Hospital for treatment.

Loan suffered burns on over 70 percent on her body, while Anh and his daughter suffered 54 percent and 20 percent burns, respectively. They were later transferred to Ho Chi Minh City-based Cho Ray General Hospital, but Loan eventually died after forty days of treatment.

According to police, Anh, a pedicab driver, often gambled and bet on fighting cocks. He used nearly all his earnings on gambling and betting, while Loan could not support the family with her modest income of VND30,000-40,000 (US$1.4-1.9) per day as a broom hawker.

Besides the baby, Loan also had to brought up a 5-year-old child.

On the fatal day, since there was no money left, Loan had no choice but to sell Anh’s cock to get money to buy milk for her baby, who was suffering hunger.

When Anh returned home, he saw that his cock was nowhere to be seen, and after Loan admitted to him that she had sold it only to buy milk for their malnourished baby, he got so angry that he burned Loan as she was holding her baby in her arms.

Huynh Thi Thuy Loan died after forty days of treatment (Photo: Luoc Bao)

8. Mother, child killed, then burned

At a hearing on December 13, 2011 the appeal court of the Supreme People’s Court in Da Nang City rejected the appeal by Nguyen Van Loi, who was sentenced to death for killing a woman in Binh Dinh Province in January.

The sentence was given to Loi, 57, on September 30 at a public trial held by the Binh Dinh People’s Court in the witness of more than 5,000 local residents, who wanted the culprit to be given the highest punishment.

On January 14, Loi, who was head of the Ky Son Hamlet, visted Do Thi Thin, 48, and then sexualy harrassed her. Thin said she would report his act to the local authorities. Loi then used a large wooden stick to strike Thin on her head, and she died on the spot.

Upon noticing Thinh’s daughter, 5-year-old Truong Ngoc Doan, standing nearby crying, Loi became worried that the girl would report his crime, so he then used the stick to beat her to death.

He then took oil from the kitchen of the house, poured it on the bodies of the mother and daughter, and set them on fire.

The fire burned the two bodies and the entire house.

After a two-month investigation, the police arrested Loi, who later pleaded guilty to his crime.

9. Man slits girl’s throat, throws body into pool

Last May a young man in Long An Province killed a 19-year-old girl with a knife and then threw her body into a fish pool to cover up the crime.

The local police later arrested 23-year-old Truong Minh Hai for the murder, and also detained his father, Truong Van Lua, who was charged with harboring a criminal.

After returning home from work on the evening of May 20, Tran Thi Thu Huong, with a flashlight in hand, went out to the toilet that is 50 meters from her house and next to a fish pool.

Hai, who was hiding nearby, rushed to the girl, tackled her to the ground, and cut her throat with a knife. He then threw her body into the fish pool and returned to his home nearby.

After discovering that Huong had not returned, her mother went out to look for her. On the way to the pool, she found the flashlight on the ground and some drag marks near the pool. A moment later, Huong’s father found her dead in the pool.

Hai and Huong knew each other when they were kids, since their families have long been neighbors. Some time before, Hai left home for Ho Chi Minh City, where he worked as a truck driver’s assistant and got married.

In February 2011, Hai returned home and met Huong again. He later fell in love with her and asked for her phone number, he told police after his arrest.

Hai phoned Huong many times to express his feelings but she did not reciprocate his affection. A short time later, after discovering that Huong had a boyfriend she was planning to marry, Hai got so envious that he wanted to kill her, he told police.

23-year-oldTruong Minh Hai (Photo: Tien Phong)

10. Man sets fire on wife

A 39-year-old man who had beaten his wife to unconsciousness and then used petrol to burn her to death was sentenced to death by an appeal court in Ho Chi Minh City last August.

The appeal court said that the life sentence handed down on Nguyen Van Hay, 39, of Dong Nai Province’s Dinh Quan District, by the provincial People’s Court was not appropriate given the cruelty of his crime, which not only killed his wife, Tran Thi Dieu Huong, but also led to the death of one of his daughters, 14-year-old Nguyen Thi Hoai Thuong.

The appeal court therefore accepted the appeal by the provincial prosecutor’s office to give the top punishment to Hay.

On the night of September 5, 2010, a drunken Hay started a fight with Huong and he then used a wooden stick to hit her on the head, causing her to fall down onto a bed.

Hay then opened a can of petrol and poured the fuel on Huong and her bed. At that time, his three children rushed to the scene to plead with Hay to stop what he was doing, but he ignored their pleas and set the woman on fire.

As the fire spread rapidly, two of three children had to run out of the house while Thuong stayed in attempt to save her mother, but she failed and was then burned to death along the woman.

Hay, who himself received burns from the fire, escaped from the scene after committing the crime.